Nvidia Shield Review

The Nvidia Shield is a product designed for a world where Android games have evolved into rich, immersive 3D experiences optimized for traditional gamepad controls. The trouble is, that world doesn’t exist — at least, not yet. Nvidia is attempting to kickstart the revolution with its Tegra 4-powered handheld, but at $299, the Shield’s premium price stands in sharp contrast of a market dominated largely by casual titles that cost $0.99 or less. Although a handful of Android titles and the Shield’s local PC streaming capability may appeal to core gamers, it’s simply not enough to attract more than a small audience of early adopters.

Exit Theatre Mode

Impractical as the Shield may be, there’s no question that it’s a well-constructed and reasonably well-designed device. Nvidia has spared no expense on build quality, using thick matte, glossy, and metallic plastic on the chassis and rubberized grips underneath. The 5-inch 720p IPS touchscreen display is one of the best I’ve seen on a portable, producing stunningly vibrant colors, sharp detail, and wide viewing angles.

Aesthetically, the Shield leaves a bit to be desired. With thick rounded handles, gamepad controls, and a clamshell screen, the Shield looks like the mutant offspring of an Xbox 360 controller and a 3DS XL. The design is unremarkable with only a small splash of Nvidia’s signature green, a faux metallic Shield logo, and a personalizable magnetic faceplate on the top. It’s also exceedingly bulky, weighing in at over a pound and measuring at more than 2” thick, making it one of the least portable portables on the market.

But where it lacks in form, the Shield makes up for in function.

The Shield's heft is due, in large part, to its fullsized controls. While other handhelds use scaled down buttons and thumbsticks, the Shield affords players the same suite and size of controls you can find on a console controller. The thumbsticks have the same surface area and range of motion as the DualShock 3 or Xbox 360, while the action buttons, d-pad, and triggers are springy and responsive. The system has a pair of stereo speakers that deliver surprisingly loud and tonally rich audio, though in many on-the-go cases, owners are more likely to use headphones. The Shield's body also houses a substantial 3400 mAh battery, which compares to the Galaxy S4's 2600 mAh and 9.7" iPad's 11,560 mAh batteries.

In real terms, the Shield can drive up to a day's worth of use, accounting for 5 hours or so of Tegra games, 10 hours of standard Android titles, and 20 hours of PC streaming.

The Shield comes with 16GB of storage (expandable with microSD) and runs on Android 4.2.1, but unlike devices like the Ouya, Nvidia has left the OS largely unaltered. While the company has added its own special launcher for games and PC streaming, the primary view is just the stock Android homescreen with support for both gamepad and touch navigation. Most importantly, by using a vanilla version of Android, the Shield has unhindered access to the Google Play Store and, if you're an Android user, all of your existing app and game purchases.

Whereas companies like Sony and Nintendo have to forge partnerships with app makers to support their platforms, the Shield has access to everything from HBO Go to Facebook to Reddit clients. It's all just a few taps away and takes advantage of Android's several years worth of cumulative development and iteration.

But while Android helps fill the gaps in non-gaming apps and functionality, the selection of compelling games is limited. Over the last couple of years, Nvidia has been building a growing library of titles optimized for its Tegra processors, which produce added layers of visual effects and physics, and now includes Shield gamepad support. ARMA Tactics, GTA III, GTA Vice City, Riptide GP 2, Sonic The Hedgehog 4, Dead Trigger, Real Boxing, and countless others are counted among the Shield-optimized section, but there's also a wide variety of titles on Google Play that work with the system's controls regardless.

Admittedly, the Shield's gamepad controls prolonged my interest in playing many of these games over their smartphone or tablet equivalents, but never to the point where I'd choose them over my Vita or 3DS. In many ways the Shield offers a better experience with more precise controls, superior graphics, and a higher resolution display, but the level of polish and the caliber of the IP is still often inferior.

The Shield's local PC streaming capabilities would be its saving grace, but the system is cost-prohibitive and can be unstable. In order to take advantage of the feature, users will need to own a PC equipped with a GTX 650 GPU or higher, 4GB of RAM, an Intel Core i3-2100 3.1GHz or AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz or greater, and a dual-band 802.11n router (802.11a/g routers will work too, but aren't recommended). The system uses H.264 video encoders to stream the low-latency video over Wi-Fi, which subsequently, isn't particularly taxing the processor or battery — hence the 20 hour estimated playtime.

When Shield streaming is working optimally, it's fantastic. You can play games with no noticeable lag and largely uncompressed audio and video. Any game in your Steam library can be accessed through the Shield via remote access to Big Picture Mode, though the Shield's custom UI offers shortcuts to a smaller collection of supported titles, like BioShock Infinite, Metro Last Light, and others. The novelty of being able to play high-end games effectively on a small portable is unquestionably awesome, but the experience is ruined by a number of technical issues.

During my testing, the incoming video stream would periodically freeze or become staggered, sometimes with screen-enveloping artifacting that would take a few moments to clear up. While the issue was worsened by moving away from my router, it would also occur only few feet away. Even in my small San Francisco apartment, I was unable to maintain a stable connection whenever I was more than 10 or 15 feet from my router. Other times, the system would struggle to sync up with my PC and fail to launch games.

Nvidia has smartly labeled the remote PC streaming a beta feature, but even with that disclaimer, I'd caution prospective buyers from investing if it's a major selling point.

Perhaps the most promising element of the Shield is its powerful Tegra 4 processor. Day-to-day use showcased noticeable speed boosts in apps and games, and during benchmarks, the Shield drove some of the highest scores in 3DMark's database. The results, paired with preloaded demos of upcoming games like Dead Trigger 2, really showcase how mobile technology is narrowing the gap between consoles. Should developers choose to embrace the hardware and power of Tegra 4, the Shield's potential for rich, immersive 3D experiences is substantial. However, convincing the development community to commit the resources to focus narrowly on the Shield and Tegra platforms won't be easy.

The Verdict

By sheer measure of the hardware alone, the Nvidia Shield is a commendable first effort. It's expertly crafted with high-end components and a comfortable, responsive control scheme — albeit with a bulky, uninspired design. The Shield's biggest challenges, however, are content and cost. There are simply too few compelling gameplay experiences on Android to justify a $300 dedicated handheld, and while the PC streaming feature shows promise, it's in dire need of performance and stability enhancements.

Okay

The Nvidia Shield is a well-crafted device limited by impractical cost and a scarcity of compelling games.